PortlandWiki:GUI: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 16:09, 19 June 2011

PortlandWiki needs a new user interface! Help us build it. This page is a central dumping ground for ideas, wireframes, graphics, color schemes, and anything else related to improving our "look-and-feel"!

Competitive Assessment

Part of thinking about a new design is to see if we can look at other wikis out there. To see how other sites have evolved, and to deduce why they reached to that conclusion. Unless someone among us were part of the design, I can only analyze based on the conclusion. Sometimes this is called heuristics. We methodically look at other sites with similar purposes or similar technologies. We methodically note what we like.

View Full Analysis

Brainstorming

Within the effort of the redesign, some initial work has been done in an effort to learn more about the user experience, and to get a sense for the needs and the goals.

View Early Design Concepts

Top Messaging Area

The Top Messaging Area is a content object located at the top of the content area of a set of pages. The TMA, tends to exist for all pages, and provides global, emergency, and account messages. In the current design the TMA appears below the page title, but one view is that the TMA should be positioned at the very top, perhaps between the logo and the top navigation.

View Top Messaging Area Analysis

Widgets

Sometimes called components. These are distinct content items that are finite, and are often positioned separately from the text area of the text. Widgets are often stacked together in a separate column of a page, serving to present the pages content in a different way. Widgets are often used as a jumping off point to other pages.

View Widget Analysis

Inline Objects

Content that is flow-based and is anchored to how text is displayed. Inline objects will change in location according to how text is is forced to flow. The most common form of content within the wiki format.

Types of Inline Objects

text
links
external links
Images
Galleries
Table of Contents

Publishing Tools

PortlandWiki:GUI Publishing

MediaWiki Skin

Within the mediawiki platform (what Piki) is built on. UI is controlled largely by the skin. The skin is integrated with the php file used for generating a page.

MediaWiki Help pages

User Styles

User Generated Skins

Family site by Dan Flores

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{RightTOC}}
 PortlandWiki needs a new user interface! Help us build it. This page is a central dumping ground for ideas, wireframes, graphics, color schemes, and anything else related to improving our "look-and-feel"!
-==C-Wrap==
+==Competitive Assessment==
-Sometimes called the 'wrapper' it is the part of the site that presents brand and top level navigation as well as development related tasks and actions. The current 2010 design has fairly large amount of screen real estate devoted to top navigation.
-Piki (portlandwiki) has a layout similar to Wikipedia and countless other wikis that use Wikimedia's software. That's not to say that this is a good or necessarily bad. It is important to think about priorities. What we see in the red below, is also the most important part of the screen. And what do we fill it with? Besides the main and events, we have publising and editing related items.
+Part of thinking about a new design is to see if we can look at other wikis out there. To see how other sites have evolved, and to deduce why they reached to that conclusion. Unless someone among us were part of the design, I can only analyze based on the conclusion. Sometimes this is called heuristics. We methodically look at other sites with similar purposes or similar technologies. We methodically note what we like.
-They by placing these items in the most valuable area, we are saying that '''publishing''' knowledge is more important than '''creating''' knowledge. I contend the opposite. That the knowledge is the most important.
+[[PortlandWiki:GUI CA|View Full Analysis]]
+==Brainstorming==
+Within the effort of the redesign, some initial work has been done in an effort to learn more about the user experience, and to get a sense for the needs and the goals.
-'''C-wrapper showing current real estate in red'''
+[[PortlandWiki:GUI Design Concepts|View Early Design Concepts]]
-[[File:Screenshot_cwrap.jpg]]
+==Top Messaging Area==
+The Top Messaging Area is a content object located at the top of the content area of a set of pages. The TMA, tends to exist for all pages, and provides global, emergency, and account messages.  In the current design the TMA appears below the page title, ''but one view is that the TMA should be positioned at the very top, perhaps between the logo and the top navigation.''
-'''C-wrapper showing items in the c-wrap that are important to hightlight'''
+[[PortlandWiki:Top Messaging Area|View Top Messaging Area Analysis]]
-[[File:Screenshot_cwrap-1.jpg]]
+==Widgets==
+Sometimes called components. These are distinct content items that are finite, and are often positioned separately from the text area of the text. Widgets are often stacked together in a separate column of a page, serving to present the pages content in a different way. Widgets are often used as a jumping off point to other pages.
-There are a couple items in the wrapper that deserve attention.
+[[PortlandWiki:GUI Widget Design|View Widget Analysis]]
-# the logo
-# the search
-# account related links
-The tricky part will be to highlight these areas while streamlining the other areas of the cwrapper
+==Inline Objects==
+Content that is flow-based and is anchored to how text is displayed. Inline objects will change in location according to how text is is forced to flow. The most common form of content within the wiki format.
+'''Types of Inline Objects'''
+* text
+* links
+* external links
+* Images
+* Galleries
+* Table of Contents
-'''New C-wrapper idea (Yellow area is for the main content)'''
+==Publishing Tools==
+[[PortlandWiki:GUI Publishing]]
-[[File:New cwrap 04-05-2011a.jpg]]
-With this particular design all the c-wrap elements have been put at the top, items that are in the side nav now could be in a pull-down (not shown)
+==MediaWiki Skin==
+Within the mediawiki platform (what Piki) is built on. UI is controlled largely by the skin. The skin is integrated with the php file used for generating a page.
-'''@ 100%...'''
-[[File:Comp_cwrapper-top1.gif]]
+'''MediaWiki Help pages'''
+[http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Gallery_of_user_styles User Styles]
+'''User Generated Skins'''
+[http://www.memorydeleted.com/ Family site by Dan Flores]